As is well known, there are two perfectly distinct color-phases of this owl, 

 the red and the gray. It is in the gray plumage that the forest-pictures are 

 most highly developed. Largely confined to this phase, also, is the curious 

 defensive habit of sitting sharply erect, raising the ear tufts straight upward, 

 closing the eyes to narrow diagonal slits, and drawing the feathers so close 

 to the body that the usually fluffy bird is reduced to about one third its ordinary 

 thickness. Of this interesting performance only one explanation, and one 

 which long seemed sufficient, has been forthcoming. People have supposed 

 that the owl practices protective mimicry, by assuming the aspect of a stick or 

 stub. While it is not to be doubted that such a purpose is often served, in 

 part, at least, yet the fact that the bird has counter shading — which even in the 

 nearly erect position tends to 'obliterate' it, and to make it look unlike a stick 

 —together with the very evident forest-vista character of its pattern, goes far 

 toward proving that mimicry is not the only object of the trick. The grotesque 

 contraction serves also to bring the background-pictures to their clearest and 

 sharpest. The more tightly and closely a bird's feathers are laid against its 

 body, the clearer do all its markings become. The Ruffed Grouse has a like 

 habit — so have bitterns and many other obliteratively colored birds — and 

 in all these cases the action, whatever may be its other merits, is an essential 

 adjunct of the obliterative equipment. Since, by every token, these birds 

 are preeminently equipped for obliteration rather than for mimetic resemblance, 

 it seems likely that the contracting-trick has greatest value as a factor of 

 obliteration. On the other hand, it is undeniable that any such ' contracted ' 

 bird has moments of close mimetic likeness to a stick or stub. I shall return 

 to this question in a later chapter. 



Judged by its markings, the European Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) 

 would seem to belong most decidedly to the 1 f orest-i/wto-picturing ' class, 

 and such an opinion is largely vindicated by an examination of the bird's 

 habits. It lives to a great extent in upland forest coverts, where its beautiful 

 and intricate wing- and side-pattern matches the vistas among trees and 

 stumps, with glimpses of mottled forest ground, while its barred breast matches 



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